Marisa and I had a nice Christmas and I am gradually getting back to work ( Read more... )

Phase Three of the dry-well connection continued to-day ( Read more... )

Digging between the Phase Two junction and the window well/downspout I encountered three things which will make this much more difficult than I planned ( Read more... )

To-day the results came back from the lab: no oil contamination from the heating oil tank buried in Marvin's Garden since the 1950's. I trusted there would be none. When I purchased the house in 1999 that report says there was no oil in the soil. Then last Friday the workers were able to do a quick check on the samples and found no oil ( Read more... )

March so far is not so great with the budget ( Read more... )

Our heating oil tank is gone ( Read more... )

Received email confirmation that the tank removal company has the signed contract and "in the coming days" will contact me about scheduling the removal process. The whole thing, once it starts, will take 3-5 days to complete ( Read more... )

I spent three hours to-day carefully removing the sliver of elevation in Marvin's Garden and hauling the dirt to Byron Hill. The island is no more. This establishes the grade that the Heating Oil Tank removal restoration must re-establish when their work is finished ( Read more... )

Pulled more dirt off the island over the Heating Oil Tank down to the new grade. The sod was transferred to the area bordering the walkway. As I dug in I discovered that pea gravel was used over most of the HOT. I dug out as much as I could without destabilizing anything and hauled the gravel away into piles I can re-use when creating pathways ( Read more... )

* Monday holiday--worked on digging ( Read more... )